This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
Two weeks remain before the U.S. Open, and that means the PGA Tour moves to Dublin, Ohio, for the Memorial Tournament. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
Hideki Matsuyama is the defending champion. He won in a playoff over Kevin Na. In 2013 Matt Kuchar beat Kevin Chappell by two and in 2012 Tiger Woods defeated Andres Romero and Rory Sabbatini by two shots as well.
Our two picks are Na and Kuchar. Na has been one of the hottest players all year to have not won -- he still has only one career PGA Tour victory, in Vegas several years ago -- with five top-15 finishes since March: T9 at Doral, T6 at Bay Hill, T12 at the Masters, T6 at The Players and T10 at Colonial. He's 21st in strokes gained-tee to green, 17th in strokes gained-total, fifth in sand save percentage and bound to win soon.
Kuchar, meanwhile, has been in the midst of a very un-Kuchar like season, with a surprising number of finishes -- seven -- outside of the top-25. But lately he's been sharper, bouncing back from a missed cut at The Players with a T39 finish last week that included middle rounds of 67 and 64. Statistically, he's still strong, ranking 12th in strokes gained-putting and 22nd in strokes gained-total. In a familiar place like Muirfield Village, look for Kuchar to find his game.
As for Woods, we still don't have enough evidence to make him a fantasy recommendation.
Who Is Playing
This
Two weeks remain before the U.S. Open, and that means the PGA Tour moves to Dublin, Ohio, for the Memorial Tournament. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
Hideki Matsuyama is the defending champion. He won in a playoff over Kevin Na. In 2013 Matt Kuchar beat Kevin Chappell by two and in 2012 Tiger Woods defeated Andres Romero and Rory Sabbatini by two shots as well.
Our two picks are Na and Kuchar. Na has been one of the hottest players all year to have not won -- he still has only one career PGA Tour victory, in Vegas several years ago -- with five top-15 finishes since March: T9 at Doral, T6 at Bay Hill, T12 at the Masters, T6 at The Players and T10 at Colonial. He's 21st in strokes gained-tee to green, 17th in strokes gained-total, fifth in sand save percentage and bound to win soon.
Kuchar, meanwhile, has been in the midst of a very un-Kuchar like season, with a surprising number of finishes -- seven -- outside of the top-25. But lately he's been sharper, bouncing back from a missed cut at The Players with a T39 finish last week that included middle rounds of 67 and 64. Statistically, he's still strong, ranking 12th in strokes gained-putting and 22nd in strokes gained-total. In a familiar place like Muirfield Village, look for Kuchar to find his game.
As for Woods, we still don't have enough evidence to make him a fantasy recommendation.
Who Is Playing
This week's field is stacked, as it also includes local boy Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed, last week's winner Steven Bowditch, Ernie Els, Harris English, Billy Horschel, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and more.
Besides the obvious picks in Bowditch, Spieth and Johnson, who consistently have made leaderboards in 2015, our picks are Day and Fowler. Yes, the same Rickie Fowler that made two quads last week in Ireland that prevented him from contending at all for the Irish Open over the weekend.
But, Fowler did win the Players -- in some of the most impressive fashion we've seen out of any player all year going -6 over his last 6 and -8 over his last 10. More impressively, to win at Muirfield Village you need to be accurate with all your shots and he sure was just that down the stretch at Sawgrass. He's 22nd in total driving, the second best mark of his career. For The Players he was fifth in strokes gained-tee to green.
As mentioned, Day is a Columbus-area resident and is a member at Jack's place. He doesn't have a very good record at the Memorial, however, (no top-25 finishes, which is surprising), but maybe the fact that he's been a bit under the weather (he withdrew from the Nelson last week with dizziness), will be an asset. Remember: beware of the injured/sick golfer! Already with a win this year in San Diego, Day ranks fourth in driving distance, 17th in greens in regulation, first in birdie average, second in the All-Around Ranking and first for putts from three feet and in. (He's a prefect 300 for 300 -- sorry if we just announcer-jinxed him.)
